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GAINESVILLE — A commodity’s value is largely based on its scarcity. Therefore, an outright Southeastern Conference regular-season title should mean plenty to Florida’s basketball team.

The Gators have won five SEC championships in their history, but two of those were shared. Florida claimed the SEC title by itself in 1989, 2007 and 2011.

UF has actually clinched more Final Four berths (four) and has just one fewer national championship than outright SEC titles.

Despite battling consistent injuries, UF has put itself in position to win the SEC title outright this season. The eighth-ranked Gators (22-5, 12-3) host Alabama (19-9, 11-4) on Saturday. Florida has a one-game lead in the conference standings over the Crimson Tide and Kentucky (20-8, 11-4) with three games to play.

UF enjoyed a two-game lead to start the week, but lost at Tennessee 64-58 on Tuesday.

“It would be nice to end the SEC regular season with an SEC regular-season championship,” Florida senior forward Erik Murphy said. “That’s not something we can really do without winning [on Saturday]. We have to stay focused on that task.”

Florida’s players have largely downplayed what winning the SEC would mean, since there are challenges remaining. Alabama, coached by former Donovan assistant Anthony Grant, has won five of its last six games. The Crimson Tide’s lone loss in that span was at LSU in triple overtime last Saturday.

UF is 8-0 at home against Alabama under Donovan, who is also 4-0 vs. Grant.

Following a home contest with Vanderbilt (12-15, 6-9) on Wednesday, the Gators end the regular season with a game at Kentucky, a program seeking its 47th SEC title.

Donovan has questioned the validity of the title in the age of conference expansion. When he started as an assistant at Kentucky in 1989, the league was three years away from adding South Carolina and Arkansas and used a different scheduling format.

“The one thing that’s happened, which has been a little bit unfortunate, is when I was first in this league at Kentucky, we played everyone twice,” Donovan said. “We played home and away, and it was a legitimate, true champion.”

The road to the SEC title has been a bit different for Florida and Kentucky than Alabama. The Wildcats and Gators have each played an equitable league schedule in terms of difficulty. Both Florida and Kentucky’s SEC opponents have a combined record of 130-140 (48.1 percent).